2008 Puzzle Game of the Year by Game Tunnel

2008 Puzzle Game of the Year

2008 Puzzle Game of the Year The Puzzle category is undergoing an identity crisis this year. In several, but not all of years past it has been known as the casual game of the year.

However, as years have passed, Casual has come to mean something bad, and we refuse to have these games associated with evil. Therefore, 2008 sees the return of the title "Puzzle!" And "Casual" is no more!

5th Place - Strange Attractors 2

Developer: Ominous Development	Players: 1
System Requirements: Windows 2K+, 2.0 GHz Processor, 512 mb RAM, 64 mb Video Card

Strange Attractors 2 is a game that you�"ll either love or you�"ll hate. That�"s the way it tends to be with games that bank heavily on physics-based gameplay. And Strange Attractors 2 is most certainly a heavy physics game. Guiding a metallic puck around space by using the gravitational pull of nodes throughout the level is an easy enough concept. However, throw in free-floating nodes that bounce around and influence gravity in an entirely random fashion makes this title either a real blast of a challenge or your worst enemy. It really depends on how you look at it.

No one can deny the polish on this title, though. Strange Attractors 2 is a beautiful game with controls that are amazingly simple for a game that looks this rich.

4th Place - Archibald�"s Adventures

Developer: Rake in Grass	Players: 1
System Requirements: Windows XP/Vista, 1.2GHz CPU, 256MB RAM, 32MB Graphics card -OR- Mac OS X 10.4 or later

It�"s difficult to find really robust titles that capture the feel of old school gaming with a decidedly modern update, but Archibald�"s Adventures manages to do just that. This is platform-based puzzle gameplay, and you could argue it�"s an descendant of the original Prince of Persia in that regard.

You control intrepid skater-kid Archibald as he attempts to escape from a mad-scientist�"s factory gone wild. There are crates to jump, creatures to avoid, bubbles to control and monsters galore to dodge. Archibald is thoroughly charming and does a great job of incorporating its main character�"s style (his skateboard) into the gameplay. Many puzzles revolve around how best to get Archibald from one point to another using the speed and momentum of his trust board.

As the game goes on, too, it gets devilishly hard… making it a great title for casual gamers and hardcore old-school fanatics as well.

3rd Place - Obulis

Developer: IonFx Studios, LLC.	Players: 1
System Requirements: Windows 98+, 128MB RAM

Obulis is a pretty ideal blend of puzzling and physics. Whereas a game like Strange Attractors 2 (up at our #5 spot) banks heavily on its physics to create the gameplay, Obulis strikes a pleasing balance. It is your mission to drop a colored ball bearing into a similarly color-coded jar… and of course it�"s not as easy at it sounds.

As you contend with the size, weight, bounce and speed of your bearings, you�"ll also need to be watching for moving platforms, springs, slopes and more. Roll on top of that the idea that you frequently need to plan and time the release of multiple bearings so that they either assist one another or at least don�"t impede one another and you have an old school puzzle game with a subtle and tricky little physics scheme. Oh and, P.S. it looks great, too.

2nd Place - Forgotten Lands: First Colony

Developer: Blue Tea Games	Players: 1
System Requirements: Windows XP/Vista, 600MHz CPU, 128MB RAM, DirectX 9+

Uh-oh. Everyone�"s in trouble now. Forgotten Lands manages to blend the concepts of a game like Virtual Villagers or My Tribe with sort of station-based task management play like Diner Dash and resource management from titles like Build-a-Lot. You might think that a game with this many parents might be a little jumbled… but you�"d be wrong.

Forgotten Lands is a totally engrossing and at times surprisingly hectic game that has you building cute little colonists to help carve out a colony in a strange land. There are farms to build, lumber mills to run, conflicts to manage, scholars to train, native nomads to purchase from… each level adds a new wrinkle to the challenge, but the game never runs off the rails. Everything always feels tightly controlled and highly manageable and totally and completely addictive.

2008 Puzzle Game of the Year - World of Goo

Developer: 2D Boy	Players: 1 (1-4 on WiiWare)
System Requirements: Windows XP+ or Mac OS X 10.1+ or Linux or WiiWare

2008 Puzzle Game of the Year It's hard to write something about World of Goo that hasn't already written. The game has been gushed over from every level of the gaming media and rightfully so. World of Goo is a game that defines more than just Indie gaming. It's one of those rare moments where madness and genius come together gloriously, leaving all humanity to stare in wonder.

The basic goal of the game is to save goo by getting it from point A to point B. Doing so is based on your own mental prowess and ability to use a variety of different goo balls, typically to create lattice structures that need to survive just long enough to see the last goo ball sucked up into the safety of the pipe on the other side.

The goo balls come in all sorts of flavors, with specific abilities such as being removable from the lattices you build, catching fire when exposed to a flame, and being air flight worthy.

The variety of goo balls and challenges they create is one of the things that makes the game such a joy to play. Every time you believe you've seen everything the game has to throw at you, some new puzzle and goo type appears to tantalize your mind with the possibilities.

Along the way, through signs both written and in the gooey world, there are continual references to the world we live in when we're not playing games. The developers let some of their own random musings about mankind and its place in the real world slip out and invade the game world. The thoughts are often poignant and provide an interesting philosophic back-drop that will often leave you ponderous, if you have any brain cells left after completing yet another mind-bending puzzle.

The greatest thing about World of Goo is that it lives up to the hype. It is a game that stuns everyone who plays it. It transports, it awakes, it transcends. And it does it without any pretense or intent to be more than what it is. The game doesn't care what you think. It's just a game. But, among the thousands of 'just a game' titles that come out each year, World of Goo is one of the very best.

Puzzle/Casual Game of the Year Award History

History:
2008 - World of Goo
2007 - Snapshot Adventures: Secret of Bird Island
2006 - Eets: Hunger. It's Emotional
2005 - Professor Fizzwizzle
2004 - Revolved
2003 - Dungeon Scroll

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By: Michael Scarpelli
Posted: Wednesday December 10, 2008